Unheard Voices Blog
This blog is dedicated to all the Unheard Voices supporters! Read all the latest updates.
New G8 hunger alliance
Posted by Bernadette Murphy | in Unheard Voices Blog | 23 May 2012 | 0 comments
Last weekend, US hosts of the G8 summit placed hunger and nutrition at the centre of the talks. The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition was launched, supported by the UK and other G8 countries. This is great progress, but more still needs to be done, especially with the UK hosting the summit in 2013.
Hunger progress
The US government showed positive leadership, ensuring that the summit had a strong focus on hunger and nutrition. Hunger is one of the biggest problems facing humanity. We can solve hunger though and it was great to see the US committed to addressing it.
New hunger alliance
The new alliance focuses on support for small-holder and women farmers and gives them a say in how and where money is invested. The approach is also results-orientated, aiming to link increased agricultural production to poverty reduction for 50 million people over 10 years.
Tags:
Time for G8 leaders to act
Posted by Natasha Adams | in Unheard Voices Blog | 17 May 2012 | 0 comments
We had a brilliant response to our G8 hunger campaign. Hundreds of Concern supporters emailed their MPs to call for Prime Minister David Cameron to lead the way on a new commitment to tackling world hunger. Now it’s time for G8 leaders to act.
Hunger: a mutual responsibility
Our charity friends at Save the Children and ONE have also been campaigning for the G8 to take action on world hunger. So, we teamed up with them to take a strong message to Downing Street before David Cameron flies to the G8 summit in Washington, DC, which takes place this weekend.
Taking action
More than 310,000 people from every constituency in the UK took action by calling on world leaders to address hunger and malnutrition. Fifty campaigners marched through central London to deliver the petition to number 10 Downing Street in wheelbarrows filled with nutritious food. Our message was simple: G8 leaders have the power to save lives by making a new commitment to supporting agriculture and nutrition in the world’s poorest countries.
Africa: the last agricultural frontier?
Posted by Natasha Adams | in Unheard Voices Blog | 22 March 2012 | 0 comments
The latest Montpellier Panel report, produced by panel members including Concern’s CEO Tom Arnold, has been released. The report: Growth with Resilience: Opportunities for African Agriculture highlights the huge potential for farmers in Africa to grow more – if challenges can be overcome.
“Growing” economy
In the last decade, six of the world’s ten fastest grow¬ing economies were African and this growth was driven by agriculture. With current crop yields lower than their potential, farmers in sub-Saharan Africa could in theory be growing much more. With around 250 million people in the region struggling to meet their daily food needs, this is good news. But many challenges remain.
Farming challenges
Agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa faces daily challenges. If you are a smallholder farmer, good quality land is hard to get. Water is increasingly scarce, droughts are frequent and climate change is making rainfall unpredictable. Food prices are high and regional trade is difficult.
The latest report from The Montpellier Panel suggests the answer to these challenges lies in building the resilience of the markets in sub-Saharan Africa and increasing the productivity of rural farmers who work the land.
Tags:
Committing to reducing hunger
Posted by Natasha Adams | in Unheard Voices Blog | 13 March 2012 | 0 comments
If we act together, we can put pressure on the UK government to push for a new commitment to reduce hunger at this year’s G8 summit. Email your MP to get your voice heard in parliament.
What are you having for dinner?
When was the last time you missed a meal? Whether or not you have planned your dinner, you can be almost certain that you will be eating something. Food is obviously the most basic human need and it is one that most of us in the UK take for granted.
The world’s hungry
A billion people don’t have enough food. A further billion people don’t have enough nutritious food to keep them healthy. That means one in seven people don’t have enough to eat. The worst thing is, there is enough food in the world for everyone. Many people in poor countries just can’t grow – or afford to buy – the basic food they need.
Tags:
Aid to agriculture is a political priority
Posted by Natasha Adams | in Unheard Voices Blog | 15 February 2012 | 0 comments
In November 2011, hundreds of Concern’s supporters took action, emailing their MPs calling for a cross-party priority of aid to agriculture. And the political parties all listened!
Political consensus
Thanks to everyone who took action. Your support made a big difference: we’re now closer than ever to political consensus.
Supporting farmers means reducing hunger
With the food crisis in east Africa and the threat of this repeating in the Sahel, hunger is high on the political agenda and discussions are focusing on how to prevent disasters in future. Countries like the UK can play a key role through targeting aid to support half a billion poor farmers grow more from small plots of land.
Support from all political parties
Concern’s last action took a new approach and asked MPs reduce hunger by making aid to agriculture a key priority for their party. This meant that the key decision makers from the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative parties received letters from their own MPs calling for them to support poor farmers. And the parties all listened!
Photos: farmers’ voices from Rwanda
Posted by Bernadette Murphy | in Unheard Voices Blog | 4 January 2012 | 0 comments
Concern Worldwide works in Rwanda with many poor farmers. We know that with the right support the poorest farmers can grow more and eat more and better food.
The photo gallery below tells the inspiring stories of some poor farmers we work with in Rwanda.
You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialise correctly.
Genevieve’s story
We spoke to Genevieve, one of the farmers who was helped by Concern’s partner Imbaraga. They taught her new farming techniques, linked her to a local cooperative with other vulnerable people and taught her the importance of growing and eating vegetables. She said:
Things have changed for me, it is because of the support from Imbaraga, I learnt farming techniques and I got animals and hens. Five years ago, before the support, I was not living a good life but now I am working with them and the times are better.
Pushing for change
Posted by Natasha Adams | in Unheard Voices Blog | 19 December 2011 | 0 comments
2011 has been a good year for the Unheard Voices campaign, thanks to Concern’s dedicated supporters.
Hunger promise
In the spring, hundreds of you campaigned with us to ensure that the UK government to keeps its hunger promise by giving £1.1 billion in aid. Amazingly, over 100 MPs wrote to Secretary of State Andrew Mitchell, who re-affirmed the pledge in response. Even better, the UK led the way on transparency around the pledge and encouraged other donor countries to keep the commitment at the G8.
Aid to agriculture
Over the last two months we’ve been running another action, calling on the UK to invest in aid to support smallholder agriculture and to lead the way on this globally. The action sought to build cross-party support by targeting decision makers in all major parties.
Tags:
New report: “Farming for Impact”
Posted by Natasha Adams | in Unheard Voices Blog | 16 December 2011 | 0 comments
Earlier this week, Concern Worldwide launched new research was in the to a packed audience in the UK parliament. The report is called “Farming for Impact: A Case Study of Smallholder Agriculture in Rwanda.” It shows how Concern and the Rwandan government have helped to reduce hunger in the country.
Parliament listens
We welcomed Malcolm Bruce MP, and Jeremy Lefroy MP, chair and member of the International Development Select Committee, to speak at the launch of our report.
Jeremy Lefroy spoke passionately of his experience in working with smallholder farmers in Africa. He stated that these farmers are key to food security, employment and democracy in many developing countries.
Reducing hunger
Lord Cameron of Dillington, himself a farmer, attended the event on behalf of the All-party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development. Supporting poor farmers, he said, can help reduce poverty and hunger, improve health and education, prevent deforestation and empower women.
Concern has been calling for the UK to invest in aid to agriculture and the momentum of this campaign is building.
Rwandan case study
The report explores how Concern and the Rwandan government have helped to reduce hunger in the country. Rwanda has spent 10% of its governmental budget supporting farmers. As a result, the country is producing much more food, and has shielded itself from the high food prices seen in east Africa. Levels of malnutrition in the country have also been reduced.
Evidence of impact
The report explores the impact of Concern’s programme in Rwanda. Farmers participating in the programme reported that they were growing up to three times more, and eating more and better food.
The programme also helped participants to create wealth and to save, with some moving from working as hired labourers to employing people themselves. Farmers also reported that through participating they made friends, and overcame fear and loneliness which have been prevalent amongst many of those worst affected by the terrible genocide in 1994.
Read the report
Photos from the launch
You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialise correctly.
The G20 and hunger
Posted by Bernadette Murphy | in Unheard Voices Blog | 4 November 2011 | 0 comments
Disappointingly, world leaders failed to make firm commitments to tackle hunger at this year’s G20 summit. But there is hope – you can email your MP to help change this.
The recent food crisis in east Africa has shocked the world. Sadly, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are still close to a billion people going hungry every night in a world where we have more than enough food to go around.
G20 agenda
Despite a pledge to put hunger at the forefront of this year’s G20 agenda, the G20 governments failed to put forward any concrete solutions to end hunger. Also, unfortunately support for smallholder agriculture was a mere footnote at the summit.
Supporting poor farmers
Half the world’s hungry people are smallholder farmers. Concern Worldwide works in 25 of the world’s poorest countries with smallholder farmers like Patricia (pictured). With the right support, we know that many poor farmers are able to feed themselves through their own hard work. Supporting agriculture goes beyond the farmers themselves. When farmers grow more, they eat more and better food, sell food locally and employ others, boosting the whole community.
G20 disappointment
At the G20 meeting in Cannes, non-governmental organisations criticised the G20 members for focusing on the requirements of business rather than addressing the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable people.
Help the UK lead the way
The UK is hugely influential in global development. It leads the way in supporting emergency efforts to end hunger and pledging to keep hunger commitments made at a previous G8 meeting in in L’Aquila, Italy. So, we are calling for the UK to lead the way globally by supporting poor farmers and helping make hunger a thing of the past.
End hunger
You can help to end hunger for hardworking farmers like Patricia by emailing your MP today, to push for their party to commit to supporting smallholder agriculture through aid.
Global Hunger Index
Posted by Bernadette Murphy | in Unheard Voices Blog | 11 October 2011 | 0 comments
The 2011 Global Hunger Index was published today. According to this year’s report, 26 countries have levels of hunger that are “alarming or extremely alarming.”
Tom Arnold, our CEO, blogged about this. Read more.
Hunger levels
The Global Hunger Index identifies the areas around the world where the hunger levels are most severe. All those with extremely alarming levels – Burundi, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Eritrea – are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Take a look at the interactive map below.
Tags:
